Two days, 5,792 invitations, with the French category taking 86% of the total

Under ministerial instructions #451 and #452, both signed by Minister of Immigration Lena Metlege Diab, IRCC resumed invitation rounds in late October, after the pace of draws had slowed ahead of the announced changes to the scoring system. The October 26 round targeted Provincial Nominee Program candidates; the round held the following day targeted candidates in the French-Language proficiency 2026-Version 2 category. The core figures for the two rounds are below:

Under the Express Entry tie-breaking rule, when several candidates sit exactly on the lowest score invited in a round, the system ranks them by the precise date and time their Express Entry profile was submitted, and only those who entered the pool before the cut-off can be invited. In practice, PNP candidates sitting at exactly 761 in draw #451 had to have entered the pool before 18:00:26 UTC on April 3, 2026, while French-language candidates at exactly 407 in draw #452 had to have entered before 19:22:00 UTC on July 13, 2026. The two cut-offs sit almost seven months and roughly three and a half months before their respective draw dates, indicating that IRCC reached back to earlier profiles in both rounds.

The structure of the two rounds leaves little doubt about where the volume sat: 5,000 invitations is 6.3 times the size of the PNP round, and the French draw supplied 86.3% of the two-day total, with the remaining 13.7% coming from the provincial nominee round. Counting the October 13 round (#448, 752 invitations) and the October 15 and 16 rounds (#449 and #450, with 2,500 and 5,000 respectively), IRCC held four draws in the 15 days between October 13 and October 27 and issued 14,044 invitations. October's monthly total now stands at 17,544, above September's 11,288.

PNP: 792 invitations in a single round, the second-largest of the year

Draw #451 was the 21st PNP round of 2026. Its 792 invitations are 40 more than the 752 issued in draw #448 on October 13, an increase of about 5.3%, and the round is second in size only to the 955 invitations issued on June 22. The expansion came alongside a lower cut-off: the minimum score fell 11 points from 772 to 761, though it remains slightly above the PNP category's 2026 average of 754 and inside the 697-805 range recorded across the year's 21 rounds.

Since the second half of 2026, PNP draws have alternated between expansion with falling scores and a subsequent rebound:

The steady growth in PNP round sizes is tied directly to federal allocation planning. The 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan raises the PNP permanent resident admissions target from 55,000 under the previous plan to 91,500, an increase of 66%, reversing the January 2025 decision to cut provincial nominee allocations by 50% across the board. With more room, provinces have accelerated their nominations, more nominees have entered the Express Entry pool, and round sizes have climbed from 442 in mid-August to 792 in this round.

Note that PNP candidates automatically receive 600 additional points in Express Entry, so a cut-off of 761 implies a base score of roughly 161 for those invited. That is consistent with PNP rounds that have long sat above 700, and it shows that competition in this category plays out in the allocation of provincial nominations rather than in the CRS itself.

IRCC also set aside up to 5,000 nomination spaces for French-speaking candidates for provinces and territories in its 2026 PNP allocation. Those spaces sit outside the regular provincial allocations and are intended to support French immigration outside Quebec.

French category: a second draw in 11 days, with the cut-off down 28 points from 435

Draw #452 was the 12th French-language round of 2026 and the second since draw #450 on October 16, with just 11 days between them. The round kept the 5,000-invitation format, but the minimum score fell from 435 to 407, a drop of 28 points in a single round that took the threshold back below 410.

Across all 12 French-language rounds of 2026, invitation volumes steadied in the second half of the year while cut-offs swung widely with the frequency and spacing of draws:

French-language draws have now issued 60,500 invitations in 2026, or 40.5% of all Express Entry invitations in the period, the largest volume of any category. Over the same period the Canadian Experience Class issued 57,750 invitations across 18 rounds for 38.7%, and the PNP issued 10,814 across 21 rounds for 7.2%. During the high-frequency stretch from July to mid-August, when draws ran roughly every two weeks, the French cut-off slid from 420 to a 2026 low of 382. After a 58-day gap between August 19 and October 16, it was pushed up to 435 before falling sharply in the second draw 11 days later.

The 407 threshold stands well apart from other categories: it is 112 points below the 519 required in the October 15 Canadian Experience Class draw and 354 points below the 761 required in the October 26 PNP draw. The gap is closely tied to the federal government's francophone immigration targets. The 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan requires French-speaking permanent residents outside Quebec to make up 9% of admissions in 2026, or 30,267 people, with reference targets of 9.5% in 2027 and 10.5% in 2028, and the government has committed to raising the share to 12% in 2029. Because Express Entry is the main source of French-speaking immigrants, the targeted French draws effectively carry most of the burden of meeting the annual francophone admissions target.

In volume terms, the 60,500 invitations issued to French-language candidates in 2026 are roughly twice the 30,267 francophone admissions target for the year. ITAs are not landings: invited candidates still have 60 days to submit a complete application and pass review, and some invitations are lost to incomplete files or withdrawals, so there is a substantial gap between invitations and eventual admissions.

A pool of 228,724 candidates: the last window before the scoring overhaul

IRCC's pool figures published with the draw results, covering the pool as of October 25, 2026, show 228,724 candidates in Express Entry. Only 787 of them hold scores of 601 or above, 20,535 sit in the 501-600 band, and 71,112 are concentrated in the 451-500 band, the largest single block in the pool. For the French category, a threshold of 407 means invitations are reaching deep into the mid-to-low ranges below 451; for the PNP, a threshold of 761 is built on top of the 600-point bonus and maps directly onto the pace at which provinces release nominations.

After the two rounds, Express Entry enters a short quiet period. IRCC confirmed in a page update on October 16, 2026 that a revised CRS will take effect on November 3, adding a Labour Market Integration factor worth up to 150 points. The factor is scored on whichever of two paths is higher, Canadian work experience or a qualifying job offer. Under the work-experience path, candidates receive 140 or 150 points depending on whether they have a spouse, with the years-of-experience component worth up to 70 or 80 points and eligible high-wage occupational experience adding up to 70 more. Under the job-offer path, the award is a flat 100 points and applies only to occupations on the high-wage list. At the same time, from November 3 job offers will no longer require a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to count toward program eligibility or CRS points, and holding an LMIA will no longer confer extra points or priority.

Because every existing profile in the pool has to be rescored, IRCC has said the process may take up to two weeks, during which invitation rounds will be paused and will resume once the recalculation is complete. Draws #451 and #452 are therefore the last invitations issued under the current rules, and the timing, category and cut-off of the next round will depend on how the pool is distributed after rescoring.

For candidates, the key dates and requirements are:

• The 60-day window after an invitation: Candidates who received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) in draws #451 and #452 must submit a complete permanent residence application, upload supporting documents and pay the required fees through their IRCC online account within 60 days of the invitation, after which the invitation expires.
• Profile consistency for PNP candidates: PNP candidates must ensure that the nomination details in their Express Entry profile match their provincial nomination certificate. The 600 additional points are only applied once the nomination is active, and any discrepancy can affect the assessment of eligibility.
• Language evidence for French-language candidates: The French-language proficiency category requires applicants to reach Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) level 7 or above in all four abilities, listening, speaking, reading and writing, using a French test recognized by IRCC, and test results must be less than two years old.
• Updating profiles before November 3: Candidates who have not yet been invited and hold a job offer that does not require an LMIA should update their profile around November 3 in line with interim guidance from IRCC, so that points they may now be able to claim are not missed. Profiles should not be edited repeatedly during the recalculation, to avoid triggering additional review steps.